Car Throttle Asks: Camaro ZL1 or Shelby GT500?

Heads or tails?  Basketball or hockey?  Donkey or elephant? Since the beginning of time, there have been certain rivalries that just make people go a bit nutty.  I'm not going to pretend I can relate to any of the sports rivalries - I just don't care - but automotive rivalries are something near and dear to my heart.  Evo or STI?  Ferrari or Lamborghini?  Camry or Accord?  HSV or FPV?  Perhaps the longest-running (and most fiercely contested) is Mustang or Camaro?

America's pair of pony cars (sit down, Dodge Challenger, you don't count) have been duking it out since the late 60's, with a brief reprieve when GM gave up from 2003-2009.  There have been many, many, countless chapters of this story.  They've been great (original Z/28 and Boss 302), they've been terrible (would you rather drive a four-cylinder '82 Camaro, a Mustang II of any sort, or take the bus?) and they've been weird (How about Mustang SVO vs 5.0L IROC-Z?).  But it's hard to argue that they've never been faster than they are now.

Both manufacturers have finally twisted the dial well past 11 at this point.  They've created pony cars that just might be past the point of making sense.  The ZL1 is encroaching on the price range of a Grand Sport Corvette (and i'm not sure that the ZL1 is a better overall package), and the Shelby GT500 with all the options is more than $67 grand.

If it's a numbers game, then the Shelby wins.  It has a monster of an engine: we're talking numbers that big-single Supra guys were bragging about years ago, off the showroom floor, with a warranty.  The 5.8L V8 has dual overhead cams with independent variable timing working on four valves per cylinder.  For 2013, an Eaton TVS2300 replaces the older-style blower for more flow and greater efficiency.  With an extra 0.4L of displacement and a much improved blower setup over last year's model, it's no surprise that power jumps massively - from 550bhp to 662bhp and 510lb-ft to 631.  Not including the Koenigsegg, that makes the new GT500 the most powerful road-going V8 production car in the world.

So if you're talking horsepower, the ZL1 is already at a disadvantage.  It uses the 6.2L "LSA", an aluminum-block pushrod V8 shared with the Cadillac CTS-V.  More displacement, but less high-end breathing room from the 2-valve arrangement.  It's topped with the same Eaton TVS blower as well, which generates 580 horsepower and 556lb-ft of torque.  They both use the same heavy-duty Tremec TR6060 6-speed manual; a 6-speed automatic is an option on the Camaro, and a convertible is an option on both.

So they're pretty similar in some ways - same supercharger, same transmission, same market, even the same MSRP ($54,995.)  How are they different?  Quite a few ways.  The Mustang is 229 pounds lighter than the Camaro, which gives it even more of an edge on the power to weight ratio.  However, in their quest to create a 200mph Mustang, they gave the GT500 a pretty long 3.31:1 final drive ratio, which allows the car to hit 60mph in first gear.  The Camaro has a shorter 3.73:1 final drive, which requires a shift for 60mph, but will aid in-gear acceleration times.  However, putting 100 more horsepower to the rear wheels (on a dyno, the ZL1 spins out 497, the GT500 597) and only requiring 2 shifts instead of 3 means the Shelby is the faster dragster.  Automobile tested both on the same track, same day, same conditions, and the GT500 smoked the ZL1: 11.78 seconds at 125mph plays a respectable 12.38 at 115.  The difference in ET is remarkable, but the 10mph higher trap speed is the real clue to the power at hand here.

But life isn't all about quarter-miles or top speed runs.  The Camaro has two major handling advantages over the Shelby: it has a 4-link independent rear suspension setup (versus the Shelby's solid rear axle), and a lower center of gravity.  It also has GM's Magnaride adaptive suspension standard, which is an option on the Shelby (via Bilstein.)  If you wanted to carve corners in a Mustang, you'd get the nimble Boss 302 and call it a day.  But the Shelby has much more weight over it's front end, more of it's weight higher up, and is dancing with its shoelaces tied together.

And then we get to the options.  While both cars have the same MSRP, a lot of stuff comes standard on the Camaro that are costly options on the Shelby.  The Performance Package ($3,495) adds a Torsen LSD, special wheels, stiffer rear springs, and the Bilstein adjustable dampers.  You need to "pony up" (har har) another $2,995 for the Track Package if you want an oil cooler, transmission cooler, and differential cooler.  A glass roof is 2 grand, Recaro seats are $1500, the navigation package is $2,300, the premium stereo is $1,300, and all of a sudden you have a $67,000 Mustang after destination.  Pricey.  Decked out with all the options, a ZL1 is still about $56,000, and you can make a lot of extra power with $11,000 and a supercharged small-block laying around.

So, similar but different.  Like it's always been, only we're talking Lamborghini levels of power for a fraction of the cost on either.  It's hard to call a 200mph factory car with a warranty for $56-$67k a bad deal, no matter how you spin it.  So the question is, which would you rather have?